Everything and the Kitchen Sink

Voila, my very first blog, not to be confused with Viola, the name of my long since passed grandma that loved me unconditionally. My hope is that all may have at least one person that bestows, sustains, and transforms them with this kind of love. I am blessed with two. I often ponder how similar my grandma’s life on the farm cooking from scratch using garden fresh ingredients, making her own butter, drinking raw milk, and preparing grass fed beef (before grain fed beef was “invented”) is to mine, except that I don’t live on a farm, I haven’t yet made my own butter, I use raw milk to make yogurt, and I am perceived to eat and live off the mainstream grid. In my grandma’s time there was no grid; eating real whole food was a common daily practice.

So here I sit drinking my GAPS shake made with watermelon, carrot, ginger, and lemon juice, homemade yogurt, and raw egg, after first dumping the leftover juicing fiber remains and egg shells into my backyard compost pile, embarking on this creative and vulnerable journey of words. GAPS stands for the Gut and Psychology/Physiology Syndrome. The GAPS protocol operates under the premise that when the gut is healed so are most mental and physical illnesses. I am a Certified GAPS Practitioner and Nutritional Therapy Practitioner living the dream in Minnesota with six kids, one husband, one dog, two cats, one gecko lizard, and one tarantula, or so my description on Facebook states. However, I am so much more than a tidy description. We all are. I am often conflicted with contradictions and emotions that refine and redefine my authenticity.

For example, I am also a lunch lady. How can a holistic nutritional therapist also be a lunch lady? I overlook the highly processed meals because I tell myself that I do it for the students. And I do. This school year, five students were suspended for bullying because I spoke up. A special needs student was afforded the same privilege as other students because I spoke up. I am the bartender/hair stylist of the middle school. Students share with me their joys and concerns. They matter to me. Even though I pack my own kids’ lunches every day, I am with them during their lunch period, which brings me great joy.

This blog will be about everything and the kitchen sink. The kitchen is my happy place and washing dishes often, not always, brings me great delight, so why not throw in the kitchen sink too! Topics will include real whole food, healing, recipes, detoxification, connections, contradictions, love, my frequent musings and random thoughts, and specific and general suggestions to nourish happiness. Enjoy!